Reports of a possible U.S. air assault against
Iranian nuclear facilities have been circulating in the media for more
than a year and a half now. Former CIA agent Philip Giraldi (The
American Conservative, 8/1/05), Pulitzer
Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh (New Yorker Magazine,
4/17/06) and most recently, investigative reporter Craig Unger in the
March 2007 Vanity Fair, have all warned of the White House’s plans
for an air- and sea-based strike against Iran.

But such an assault has been in the planning
since before November 2003, when U.S. Strategic Command near Omaha,
Nebraska completed its preparations for waging offensive and preemptive
strikes against Iran and North Korea (William Arkin, Washington Post,
5/15/05). Under “CONPLAN 8022” (Contingency Plan 8022), the Omaha-based
command center is now commissioned to strike anywhere in the world within
minutes of detecting a target deemed a threat to the United States’
national security. And the projected attack against Iran—which could well
include nuclear as well as conventional weapons—will be planned, launched
and coordinated by StratCom.

For over half a century, the seemingly remote
Omaha Air Force Base in the American heartland served exclusively as the
command center for the U.S.’s nuclear deterrent. After 9/11, however,
StratCom underwent a significant transformation of its role and mission,
becoming in effect the ‘war room’ for waging the White House’s “War on
Terror.” StratCom retained its historic responsibility for overseeing the
largest nuclear weapons arsenal in the world. But it acquired the
additional charges of “full-spectrum global strike” (staging offensive,
preemptive attacks); combating weapons of mass destruction; space and
computer warfare; ballistic missile defense; and surveillance and
reconnaissance (the “warrantless wiretaps” conducted by the National
Security Agency, for instance, were a StratCom project).

According to the Vanity Fair article,
StratCom could be ready to launch a “massive” aerial attack against the
hundreds of nuclear facilities in Iran as soon as the end of this month
(February). The possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons to
penetrate the reinforced bunkers protecting the Iranian nuclear research
facilities is also apparently real.

Today, U.S. Strategic Command in Bellevue,
Nebraska (a suburb of Omaha) is the most dangerous place on the face of
the earth. To thwart this
wrong-headed and potentially catastrophic assault on Iran by StratCom will
require nothing less than a mobilization by the world community. The
Bush/Cheney Administration must be publicly challenged in the court of
world opinion, and international media coverage of StratCom’s leading role
is integral to rallying opposition.

Can you imagine the public
reaction—particularly in the Muslim world—if the war plans taking shape at
StratCom were common knowledge?

Here we have the command center for the world’s
largest nuclear arsenal orchestrating an unprovoked attack (possibly even
with nuclear weapons) on a non-nuclear Muslim nation, in order to prevent
that country from even developing nuclear power for civilian purposes, for
fear it might someday make a bomb.

StratCom’s policy promotes a morally repugnant
double standard. And it is begging to be turned into a ‘bully pulpit,’
from which opponents can expose its hypocritical behavior.

Under international law, were the United States
again to launch an unprovoked attack against a Muslim nation— as it did
with Iraq—it would be acting illegally. But if the U.S. were also to use
tactical nuclear weapons on Iran, it would be only the second time in over
61 years that a nuclear weapon has been used militarily. And on each of
those occasions, it will have been the United States that used them.

The role and mission of StratCom has changed so
dramatically in the past five years that most of the world has little idea
of what is currently going on there. At this critical moment in history,
the international media could provide no greater service to the world
community than to publicize the acts being plotted at StratCom.

We urge you to give this ‘news tip’ your full
consideration. We may not have much
time before something irrevocable in human affairs occurs.

I would
personally be willing to assist you any way I can in getting this story
out to an international audience. I can be reached directly at
402-475-7616 and at my personal email address of
WalteRinne@neb.rr.com.

Thank you for
your prompt attention.

Tim Rinne

State
Coordinator, Nebraskans for Peace

Nebraskans for Peace is the oldest
statewide Peace & Justice organization in the United States, and has been
working for more than 35 years to alert the public about U.S. Strategic
Command. Check out our website at:
www.nebraskansforpeace.org

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